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Nigel Farage has denied saying anything racist “with malice” in his latest attempt to address allegations of abuse made by numerous of his contemporaries at school.
The Reform leader declined to call his accusers liars, but lost his cool as he turned his fire on the BBC for questioning him about alleged antisemitic comments.
He became increasingly angry as was asked by the BBC about his deputy leader, Richard Tice, saying the testimony of his former classmates was “made-up twaddle” and lies.
Tice had earlier been questioned by the BBC’s Emma Barnett, who pressed the politician on Farage’s “relationship with Hitler”, in relation to allegations from a Jewish former classmate that Farage had said to him: “Hitler was right,” or “Gas them.”
In response, Farage launched a tirade against the BBC and said he would no longer speak to the broadcaster, calling it “despicable” and “beyond belief”.
Describing Barnett as one of the BBC’s “lower-grade presenters”, he criticised the way she asked the question, and then attacked the BBC for the fact it was showing programmes in the 1970s and 1980s that would be viewed as racist today.
“I cannot put up with the double standards of the BBC about what I’m alleged to have said 49 years ago, and what you were putting out on mainstream content. So I want an apology from the BBC for virtually everything you did throughout the 1970s and 80s,” he said, referencing comedian Bernard Manning and the fictional character Alf Garnett, as well as The Black and White Minstrel Show.
He went on to read out a letter he said he had received from a former schoolmate at Dulwich college, who said he never heard the Reform UK leader racially abuse anyone.
The letter said: “I was a Jewish pupil at Dulwich college at the same time and I remember him very well. While there was plenty of macho tongue-in-cheek schoolboy banter, it was humour, and yes, sometimes it was offensive … but never with malice. I never heard him racially abuse anyone.
“If he had, he would have been reported and punished. He wasn’t. The news stories are without evidence, except for belatedly, politically dubious recollections from nearly half a century ago. Back in the 1970s the culture was very different … especially at Dulwich. Lots of boys said things they’d regret today or just laugh at. Whilst Nigel stood out, he was neither aggressive nor a racist.”
Asked repeatedly whether his accusers, such as the producer Peter Ettedgui, were liars and making things up, Farage declined to endorse Tice’s words.
When Farage was asked again by ITV about the allegations, he attacked the broadcaster for having featured the racist comedian Bernard Manning.
Pressed on whether the allegations about racist comments were events that really happened, but his classmates experienced them in a different way, Farage said: “Recollections may vary.”
Anna Turley, the chair of the Labour party, said: “Nigel Farage can’t get his story straight. It really shouldn’t be this difficult to say whether he racially abused people in the past.
“So far, he’s claimed he can’t remember, that it’s not true, that he never “directly” abused anyone, that he was responsible for “offensive banter”, and deflected by saying other people were racist too.
“Instead of shamelessly demanding apologies from others, Nigel Farage should be apologising to the victims of his alleged appalling remarks.”
The Conservatives said Farage had “just called a press conference and used it to rant at journalists over historic allegations of racism and antisemitism – allegations he has just admitted are true.”
